billsfan89

At least you got to see a great run for a little over a decade. for 18 years I didn't see a 10 win season. I never thought of switching teams, but rather during the Chan years I just simply accepted that this team would never be good.

I starting being a Bills fan in 2001 as I was just starting to really get into the NFL and the Bills were a bad team I felt was an underdog and I could get into without being a "bandwagon" fan. Little did I know I was in for a lot of suffering. The TD era from 2002-2005 was a lot of up and down. Some quality free agent adds but poor drafting led to some up and down seasons where they were far too capped out to add the 2-3 pieces of talent they needed to get into the playoffs. But I felt like they could rebuild and compete in the near future after the wheels came off in 2005. Then came the Jauron era which was poor free agency and poor drafting combined with cheap ownership (sorry Ralph the team wouldn't exist without you but he did not invest in the team.) Boneheaded decisions mixed with self imposed handicaps. That was another 4 years down the drain with a mediocre coach and a mediocre team. Then came the Chan era and I was honestly bottomed out at that point. The Bills had spent 4 years with a tired retread in Jauron and they hired another third tier retreat in Chan. And although I liked what Chan did with the offense it was just an era where you knew they weren't building to anything more than mediocrity with a cheap owner and a uninspiring coaching staff. But I stuck with my beloved Bills and then came the ups and downs of the Marrone and Rex eras where the ups and downs continued. They had talent but were never well coached and always had to cap themselves out to get into a position to be competitive but couldn't draft consistently to build up their talent base in a somewhat sustainable manner. But Pegula kept investing in the team and finally found someone that was going to rebuild the team the right way while also having the off the field investments. McD surprised and surpassed my expectations in 2017 making the playoffs and ending the drought. Finally lifting that dark cloud from the franchise. But they continued their rebuild in 2018 taking a step back to build a long term winner. Finally in 2019 they do what we all wanted them to do and rebuilt the O-line, they added a lot of skill position players around a young QB (giving a QB a chance) they added and retained their defensive talent which was already good. And now you have a 10 win team that has 2 games left to play and a chance at their division. I know nothing is guaranteed but it just feels good to be a Bills fan for once. I never got to enjoy the success of the 1990's (either the Super Bowl runs of the beginning of the decade or the solid competitive teams of the late 90's.) I know a lot of fans that came into watching the team post 2000 probably feel the same way as me.

I actually think that the Bills are going to play a conservative gameplan against the Pats. I think they leaned that they can't let Josh "loose" against the Pats defense as turnovers will kill them. They also know that Brady and that offense is not what it used to be. This game away is going to be a one possession game, the type of game the Pats win by playing not to lose.

The Bills have earned every inch of respect from the national media. This 4 game stretch they are 3 games into is almost as tough as any 4 games any team could play. The Bills play 2 of the top 4 teams in the league one home and one away (Baltimore and NE) and they play 2 tough respectable borderline teams away (Cowboys and Steelers.) They hung tough with one of the best teams if not the best team (thus far) in the league in Baltimore and beat 2 pretty decent teams on the road one handily. These past 3 games have proven the Bills are a legit good team and the fact that the Bills are still in the running for the division and a bye proves that.

The Steelers game was not Josh's finest hour. He made some mistakes and missed some opportunities. But Josh came through with enough big plays to support the defenses fantastic effort (and the special teams quality effort.) But Josh has had a lot of other quality games against bad to decent teams that you could point to that far outpaced anything Duck Hodges has done. I am not sure if Josh is an elite QB but he is progressing and still growing. 2020 I think will see exactly around what kind of QB Josh can really be long term.

The Ford to guard argument in my opinion is a 2020 argument. You seem to have some people that think Ford needs to move to guard this year which makes no sense.

If your argument is that Ford might have to kick in to guard to take over for Spain in 2020 that is a much more coherent take. My issue is with anyone thinking Ty needs to take over at RT in 2019 AND Ford has to kick into guard (providing if Spain and Feliciano are healthy) makes zero sense to me.

I know from 2011-2013 people really wanted Glenn kicked in at guard. But I think by 2014 when he put in a pro-bowl caliber season (along with his excellent 2015) no one wanted Glenn at guard. But yeah despite quality average or better play at a tackle position seems worthless to a lot on here.

Tre is a lock, not sure who else would make it. Lots of guys could make it. Edumonds has been playing like a top LB but had a OK first half of the season. Milano in my opinion has played like a Pro-Bowler and so has Jordan Phillips who will have a sack total as a DT that will get attention. Hyde has been good all year long and has the name recognition. On offense if John Brown has a really good final 2 games he has an outside shot. I think Mitch on the O-line might also get some attention as the Bills O-line has turned into a top 5-10 unit in the league and Mitch has been one of if not the best players on that unit. Not sure anyone else on offense has a shot unless the O-line metrics and scouting says something different. But if I had to guess, Tre, Hyde (has the name recognition), Mitch, and Jordan Phillips all make it.

I don't know what this fetish for moving Ford to guard in 2019 is? I get that you might think Ford has been a liability at RT I get wanting Ty in there and moving Ford to the bench (although I think Ford has been decent at RT.) But Spain and Feliciano have been very good to solid at the guard positions. They don't need to be replaced by Ford.

The Bills offense was bad but it came through when it counted.

Just really a remarkable turn of events for the Bills. 10 wins and a playoff spot with a chance to take the division and a possible bye? All with a young blue chip QB and some solid young pieces in other critical positions? As a Bills fan since 2001 I have had to watch as year after year the Bills have either failed to put talent together and or been poorly coached. But now the Bills have a great head coach, good talent and a system that fits the talent. This team does the little things and has the talent hang with anyone. A second playoff trip is a great achievement for this young team.

Do people forget how bad the return game was last year? A bad return game can cost you games.

How quickly people forget just how horrid the return game was last season. Roberts might not be a game breaking returner but he is super reliable and on punts in particular always gets those 8-10 yard returns that add up to help the field position game. I think he is a quality reliable returner.

Shaq has 5.5 sacks with 3 games remaining on the season. I don't know if I would say the team "really" needs to bring him back. He is a nice player but I am not overpaying for him if I am Bills management. I think he is an excellent DE3 but I don't think he is starting caliber opposite Hughes. I think a deal that is around 8 million aav is about what I would pay. Agreed on White they are going to lock him in for 2021.

He has 5.5 sacks this year in 13 games. He still is an effective player. But I do agree that he should retire after this season. He can chase a ring with whatever team he lands on this season but after that I don't see why he would keep playing. The thing with football is that you are much more likely to damage your body playing those few extra years. Whereas less collision based sports like Baseball and Basketball might cause wear and tear on your body playing a few years in your late 30's and 40's just isn't going to have the same negative impact.

He ordered someone to do it. Someone not listing to you ordering them to commit a crime doesn't absolve you of it. No I don't think he should be impeached over it. My only point was that he technically committed a crime

You are being purposefully dense. I am not saying that Trump was convicted of a crime. I am saying he committed it. Did Bill Clinton commit perjury despite the fact he was never charged with that crime. This is a message board not a court of law. I don't think it is a stretch to look at the Muller report confirming the story of Trump ordering McGahn to fire Muller as Trump attempting to obstruct an investigation. There is no other supposition to make.

If you fire the head of an investigation it delays the investigation as the new person heading it up has to reorient themselves into continuing the investigation. It was designed to be a stall tactic. You don't have to end something to obstruct it. Trump in business would stall things out with lawsuits and other methods of dragging things out. This is exactly what he was trying to do with this investigation. You can't charge a sitting president. You present the evidence to Congress. That's what Muller did. Congress didn't think it was strong enough to warrant removal because while a crime was committed it wasn't strong enough in nature to warrant the political will to justify it.

The reason I believe Russia Gate to be non-sense is that the media narrative of Trump being a Manchurian candidate doesn't jive with Trump's actions on Russia. He literally pulled out of the nuclear treaty that ended the Cold War. In fact that narrative has pushed Trump to push harder on Russia and has escalated tensions. Obama made fun of Romeny for stating that we were in a new Cold War and I agreed with that being stupid and based in the 1980's. However there isn't a debate that Trump did trying and obstruct the investigation. Is it enough to remove him from office? No, I look at this (once again based off of what we know so far) as illegal but not enough to remove someone from office over. I don't even get why you would object that much over this assertion. Also this isn't a supposition either. This is literally a man firing the man leading the investigation of him. In a court of law you don't need to have him literally say "I did this for X reason." Your burden of proof is as high as Dave Chappelle's was for R.Kelly in that hilarious bit.

It is still a crime to obstruct an investigation into yourself. However the reason as to why I think this crime (similar to Clinton's crime of perjuring himself) wouldn't qualify as being enough to remove him from office (based on what we know so far) is due to the fact that the underlying investigation wasn't that valid. However all I am saying is that technically Trump did commit a crime. That's all, that's all I am saying.

You would then have to believe that firing the person leading the investigation would have no impact on the investigation. Stop with this bad reductive thinking.

You are asserting that firing the person investigating you is not obstructing their investigation.

I don't understand how you are not getting that I thought the Russiagate narrative was non-sense. The idea that Trump was this Manchurian candidate was silly. You act like I just watch CNN and believed everything. You are acting in bad faith because I don't 100% agree with you. I am not even arguing that based off of what we know so far Trump should be removed from office (how you keep missing this fact is astonishing) all I asserted is that this is very similar to the Clinton impeachment where laws were technically broken but that still wouldn't qualify as enough to remove him from office (based on what we know thus far.) How this is even controversial with you is stunning. Once again anyone slightly diverting from your opinion is just not good enough and an NPC or whatever other nonsense attack you want to go with. My contention is that Trump (According to the Muller Report on page 290 MaGahn testified to the fact) in ordering Muller removed for the purposes of obstructing his investigation. Now you can't argue that Trump ordered McGahn to have Muller fired that is a fact. Your only argument is that, despite that evidence it still wouldn't qualify as obstruction of justice. Which I find stupid as it asserts that someone not listening to you instructing them to commit a crime absolves them of attempting to commit a crime. "That weekend, the President called McGahn and directed him to have the Special Counsel removed because of asserted conflicts of interest.McGahn did not carry out the instruction for fear of being seen as triggering another SaturdayNight Massacre and instead prepared to resign. McGahn ultimately did not quit and the Presidentdid not follow up with McGahn on his request to have the Special Counsel removed." Muller Report Page 290. He didn't put it under consideration he literally ordered it according to McGahn himself (aka the man who he issued the order to.) How you guys seem to miss this is astonishing. "That weekend, the President called McGahn anddirected him to have the Special Counsel removed because of asserted conflicts of interest.McGahn did not carry out the instruction for fear of being seen as triggering another SaturdayNight Massacre and instead prepared to resign. McGahn ultimately did not quit and the Presidentdid not follow up with McGahn on his request to have the Special Counsel removed." Muller Report Page 290.